Home Sweet Home?
by Inyunaruto365
Summary: After leaving to Aria for two years, Carley comes back and sees everything isn't as it was when she left.
1. Coming Home to Dissapointment

**A/N: Two years passed since Carley had to leave to Aria from leaving the others. When she returns to the swamp, everything is not like it was when Carley departed. Find out how everything turns out.**

Carley was walking through the forest after two years of leaving the swamp and going back to her kingdom Aria. She was nervous what will happen if Shrek and the others see her again after suddenly leaving the way she did that night.

Inside the house, Shrek was taking a nap with Fiona sitting on his lap sleep also when they were awoken by the sound of someone knocking on the door lightly. Fiona was the first person to wake up from the gentle tap who was able to get up from Shrek without waking up as she walked up to the door and opened it. When she did, her light blue eyes widened to see someone she hasn't seen for two years.

"C-Carley?"

"Hi, Fiona," Carley said as Fiona gave her an almost bone breaking hug happy to see her friend again. Fiona saw that Carley grew during her time away. Her short black hair grew longer that reached her shoulders. She still wore her black and red glasses who also lost a bit more weight since Carley left and seemed to grow a couple feet compared to two years ago.

"I see you're happy to see me again," Carley said.

"Of course I'm happy to see you! Come in, I'll wake up Shrek and tell him you're here," Fiona said ending the hug as the both of them entered the house, "He missed you so much after you left like that."

"He did?"

"Yeah! He wouldn't stop talking about you and how he saw you when you were 13, along with Donkey and the triplets. Everyone missed you."

Carley smiled. "What about Leah?"

Before Fiona could respond, Shrek woke up and saw Carley. Without thinking thinking, the bald ogre gave Carley a hug.

"Hey, Shrek," Carley said trying to breath from the tight bear hug, "Glad to see you, too."

"You jerk! I should hit you for leaving! But I'm so happy you're back!!" Shrek said as he ended the hug with a smile on his face.

"What about Leah?" Carley wondered as Shrek and Fiona went silent when Carley wondered about her friend. Wondering why the ogre couple were so silent about that, she asked, "What's wrong? Where's Leah?"

The two didn't say anything when Carley asked the second time until Shrek said, "..........Well-"

"Hey! Shrek! Fiona!" Carley turned around and saw that it was Leah running beside a woman with light chestnut hair with red crimson hair who wore a black and purple guard robe with a double gold bladed sword.

Carley saw how much Leah grew since she last seen her two years ago. Leah's dark brown hair grew around shoulder length along with losing weight. She seemed more happier than when she last saw her who gave Shrek and Fiona a hug. And as Carley watched the young girl hug the couple, she saw that Leah had a dark brown monkey tail.

"Well, it's about time you got back. Shizuru, I thought you were going to bring her back a half an hour ago?' Shrek said.

"Sorry about that. Haruka came when I was trainin' Leah-san here and showed her a few fighting techniques since Haruka thought mine were just amateurish, as she put it," Shizuru said with a smile across her lips.

"Well, that explains everything. Leave it to that hard-head Haruka to do something like that," Shrek said ruffling Leah's hair.

Carley wondered what was going on with a long, "Uhhhh.........."

"Oh. Sorry 'bout that. Carley, this is Shizuru Viola. Shizuru, this is Leah's friend Carley Palmer," Shrek introduced.

"Ah, your the one Shrek keeps talkin' about," Shizuru said shaking Carley's hand.

"Nice to meet you," Carley said watching Leah timidly hide behind Fiona, "Uh, Leah. Why are you hiding behind Fiona? Don't you recognize me? It's me. Carley."

"C-Carley? I don't know anyone named Carley," Leah said as everyone watched Carley's expression change.

Shrek sighed knowing Carley wondered what was going on.


	2. Explain Yourself!

Carley, Shrek, Fiona, and Shizuru went inside while Leah played with the triplets outside.

Carley wanted to know what was going on and why Leah doesn't remember her as Shrek sighed. "I didn't know how to tell you. I really hoped Leah would remember you or your face at least."

"What are you talking about? What happened to Leah? Why can't she remember me?" Carley demanded standing up in the chair she was she was sitting in.

"Carley, please calm down. Just sit back down and I'll tell you," Shrek said as Carley did what the ogre told him to and calmed down by taking a few deep breathes before Shrek proceeded. "When we told Leah you suddenly left, she became upset and didn't talk to anyone for a few months. She thought you left because of her being a pest to you. So, last year, Leah decided to try and find you and bring you back to the swamp. We tried to stop her, but, well, you know how Leah is when it has something to do with a friend in danger. So, Fiona and I decided to go with her so nothing would happen to her. Then, one day, when we were fighting against a SLAVE that Shizuru was fighting, Leah helped out by distracting it as Shizuru and defeated the SLAVE monster before it attacked Fiona when............But............something happened..........."

"Something happened? What happened?" Carley wondered with worry in her eyes.

Shrek didn't say anything for a long while before finishing with his head lowered sadly in disloyalty. "...............when the SLAVE was slowly disintegrating, the monster was able to throw a thorn that was aiming towards me. Leah was able to push me out of the way before it hit me. But in the process, Leah got hit by it instead. Directly on the left side of her head." Carley's eyes widened when Shrek said this as he continued with his hands trembling remembering that unfaithful day. "Blood was everywhere when the thorn hit Leah. Luckily, Shizuru was able to fly her to the Garderobe College before Leah began to seizure. It took three Otomes to calm Leah down when she woke up from sleeping for two to three weeks after the doctors were able to stop the bleeding. Everyone was happy to see Leah away, but when Fiona saw that Leah shied away from her, we knew something was wrong. The doctors told us that they had to transfer more blood before Leah went into shock from the blood loss. And they also told us that because of the thorn hitting Leah on the left side of her head, she lost her entire memory of everything."

"What?" Carley half exclaimed watching Leah lay around in the grass asleep with Soi, the bald ogre, and his twin brother Zacj, the boy with red hair beside her.

"I know. Everyone was shocked to hear what happened to Leah's memory being lost, including Shrek and I when the doctors told us," Fiona sadly said looking out the window, "And when the that happened, Shizuru begged us to be forgiven her for Leah's accident and offered to be Leah's caretaker."

"We didn't know if the Headmistress Natsuki would allow this, so we asked her after telling her what happened who gladly agreed for Shizuru to be Leah's caretaker. It took a while for Leah to accept her and us, but she got used to us again and began to get to know us like nothing happened. But still.............." Shrek lowered his head again in shame as he said, "I'm sorry, Carley that Leah doesn't remember you. We tried everything to regain her memory by telling her about you and how nice, kind, and gentle you are to her whenever you're around Leah. But unfortunately, nothing."

Carley didn't know what to say to what she just heard when she saw Shizuru bowing her head down with her eyes closed in shame. "Please, don't blame Shrek and Fiona about what happened to Leah-san. It is my fault your friend's memory is lost." All Carley did was lower her head and sighed.

"It's okay." The twenty year old said, "It was an accident after all. Leah was doing what she usually does when her friends are in trouble. But.....still.........Thank you for taking care of Leah when I left to Aria."

"Does that mean you're okay with me being Leah-san's caretaker?" Shizuru wondered to Carley who was about to walk out of the door.

"As long as you don't interfere between Leah and me, I don't care."

"Very well. I humbly thank you for allowing me to continue to help me take care of Leah for what happened," Shizuru said with her head still bowed as Carley walked out the door to where Leah was now trying to climb a tree.

"U-uhm, hi," Carley said.

"Hi. Are you that girl Shrek and Fiona keep telling me about?" Leah wondered.

"Yes. I guess you don't remember me, do you?"

Leah sadly looked at the ground and timidly shook her head. "I'm sorry. But I don't remember you at all. Whenever I do, my head starts to hurt for some reason."

"I see......" Carley said looking at the ground herself, looking at Leah's tail, "How did you get that tail?"

"This? I don't know. I remember waking up with it in the hospital along with this cool looking scar on the left side of her face. You wanna see it? It looks gross, but it's a winner."

"Sure." Leah jumped off the tree and moved the left side of her hair to show Carley a huge faded scar that ran down from her ear, to between the back of her head and neck, and a little bit of the front of her head that wasn't that visible for people to stare at the scar. Carley could see a few faded stitches around the scar from when Leah was in the hospital. "Wow."

"Kinda gross, huh? It took ninety stitches to keep half of my face in tack and it took about a month for the doctors to get rid of all the stitches because of how many there are since some areas of the scar weren't completely healed enough for the stitches to come off," Leah said as Carley lightly laughed, "Say, uh, do you want to hang out with after I go to college tomorrow since tomorrow is Friday after all. I have so many questions for you."

"Questions?"

"Yeah. I asked everyone in Far, Far Away about you and they kept saying good things about you and how awesome you were when you were living in Far, Far Away. Even the king told me how he liked you."

"Wait. Do you mean Artie? He likes me?"

"Yeah. He had a bit of a crush on you. And when you left, he said it broke his heart when he found out you left to a kingdom called Aries or Aura."

"Do you mean Aria?"

"Yeah! That's it! He kept talking about you until I I almost couldn't take it anymore and had to tell him to shut up."

Carley smiled hearing all this from Leah. She didn't know people missed her so dearly. "Sure. I don't mind hanging out with you tomorrow. What college are you going to?"

"Garderobe College," Leah said with her hands behind her head, "The Headmistress gave me a free scholarship to attend the college. Shizuru-kun's a mixture of my private tutor, helper, and caretaker because of a Learning Difficulty I have when the teachers saw I wasn't understanding the material very well during the first semester of college."

"Oi! Leah! Are you gonna keep yapping to Carley, or are we gonna play mud football?" Sui said forming the mud into a football.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry about that. Do you wanna play with us, Carley-sama?" Leah offered.

"Uh, sure. I love mud football," Carley said preparing for the game, 'She hasn't changed at all. Even though her memory's gone, her personality hasn't changed a bit. She still love me for me. Not because of my disability.'

"Incoming!" Zacj called out interrupting Carley's thought before getting hit with a glob of mud directly in the face hearing the sounds of the twins Zacj and Sui laughing along with Leah as Carley wiped mud away from her face and eyes with how saw them continue to laugh at her. "Sorry! It was Sui who did that!"

"What!? You're the one who threw it!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did, too!"

"Uh, guys...." Leah saw Carley with a mud football in her left and right hands with a smile on her face.

"Uh-oh!" Zacj and Sui both said as them and Leah ran away from Carley who was following them in post haste along with laughing. Catching mud to make touchdowns and throwing it at each other as Shizuru watched with a smile on her face after Shrek and Fiona talked to her about Carley, why she is, and how Shrek met her growing up.

"I see," Shizuru said, "You sure have some weird friends. Even weirder than some of mine, Shrek."

"Yeah. I get used to people saying that," Shrek said scratching the back of his bald head.

"Thank you again for being Leah's caretaker and helping through college because of what she has," Fiona said.

"It's nothin', really. She's a really nice person once I got to know her. A bit on the shy side on most days when I'm talking to her about a few things, but is still a sweetheart when she has to be," Shizuru said watching Leah jump on top of Carley's back blinding the girl with glasses with mud as both the females fell in the mud and laughed, "She never really had that many friends in the college because of her havin' a Learnin' Disability and goin' to Special Ed Classes. The girls are afraid they might get it and stay away from Leah-san. I over hear some of the girls sayin' she's the most immature person they're ever met."

"And they call themselves Future Otomes," Fiona sighed annoyingly.

"Yeah. However, people do the same thing with Carley when she was growing because of a rare condition she has before she met Fiona and I," Shrek said hearing Leah yell....

"Revenge!!!" Who jumped on top of Zacj as he threw mud in Leah's eyes temporarily blinding her. "Aahhh! My eyes! I'm blind!!" Before falling in the mud front first.

"I guess I'll stop them before they end up killing each other," Fiona said with a sigh before walking outside and stopping the mud war.

"Aww! It was getting good!" Sui whined.

"Yeah!" Leah and Zacj agreed.

"I'm sorry, but it's time for Leah to leave with Miss Shizuru," Fiona said.

"But I don't wanna go! I wanna stay here with Carley and play with her some more!" Leah whined holding Carley by her waist.

"I'm sorry, but we have to go. You have trainin' to do, remember?" Shizuru said.

"Oh, yeah. Forgot. I guess I better go," Leah said getting up and hugging Zacj, Sui, and Carley before leaving with Shizuru who held the woman's hand happily swaying it back and fourth as Carley heard Leah yell, "I'll see you tomorrow, Carley!!" Who waved to Carley and the others before finally disappearing into the sky.


End file.
